Ok. Now that we know what organic food is and what the advantages of organic food are (remember, there is nothing even approaching a scientific consensus on whether or not organic food is higher in nutritional value; in fact, there’s quite a nasty argument about it. The main advantage to organic food is that it is made using safer, sustainable methods), it’s time to talk about how to know that what you’re buying is truly organic.

So, how can you tell if a food is organic? The USDA has created a special seal and special naming regulations to ensure that any foods labeled organic are truly inspected and approved by a USDA-authorized organic certification agency.

Here is the seal:

In order to use this seal on a package, the product must be certified to contain at least 95% organic ingredients.

Now, to the actual words used. On single-ingredient items, such as fruit, you might see a small sticker of the seal. On multi-ingredient items, it gets a bit trickier. If an item is marked “100% Organic”, it is completely organic, no non-organic ingredients allowed. If it says “Organic”, it is 95% - 100% organic, just like the seal. If it’s made with at least 70 % but less than 95% organic ingredients, it may list the organic ingredients on the front of the package. If the product contains less than 70 % organic ingredients, the producer may list the organic items on the side panel but may not advertise them on the front of the package. Whew! Confused yet? (Incidentally, much of this information comes from the USDA’s excellent consumer guide to organic food, found here.) Organic labeling and certification is completely voluntary, and some producers who use organic methods may not opt for certification (which means their products may be organic, but they are NOT certified organic, and they cannot use the labeling allowed by the USDA for certified organic products).

In Buying Organic: A Primer, Part 3, we’ll talk about the many places you can purchase organic products.